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Nintendo Sold 3 Million Wii U Consoles Last Year

Nintendo reportedly moved roughly 3 million Wii U consoles between its November street date and the end of December.

In addition to the machine itself, the company stated that 11 million games have been sold for the console. Although these numbers are certainly impressive, Cinema Blend reports that Nintendo’s latest offering is trailing behind the Wii.

During the first month of launch, the Nintendo Wii sold a staggering 3.5 million units. In terms of games, the company said it sold an impressive 45 million titles. According to GameIndustry, the difference in the number of games purchased is likely due to the lack of titles available at launch.

As a result of these weaker than expected sales, Nintendo has been forced to cut the number of consoles it plans to sell in the coming months. The New York Times explains the company was hoping to turn things around financially after the somewhat lackluster sales of the Nintendo 3DS. Executives changed the sales forecast for its latest handheld device as well.

Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter explained:

“Nintendo needs a change in strategy. Smartphones and tablets are nibbling away at the edges of the market for games. If they can’t beat it, they should consider making money off it. Why can’t Mario be on the smartphone?”

Nintendo announced that it had generated profits of around 14.55 billion yen between April and December. This number is certainly good news for the company; a year earlier Nintendo had posted a loss of around 48.5 million yen.

While software sales were less than impressive, Nintendo’s beloved Mario franchise still moved quite a few copies. New Super Mario Bros. U sold around 2 million copies, while Nintendo Land managed to move 2.33 million copies.

Are you a fan of Nintendo’s consoles? Are you surprised that the company didn’t sell as many Wii U machines as it had originally anticipated?